Between this gable--which faced the road, and had four lines of windows
in it, besides a basement row--and the back or town door, as described,
was one squarish, roomy window, out of relation to all the rest, and
perhaps twelve feet above the ground. This, as might be guessed, was on
the landing of the stairs within; for the great door and front of the
residence being at the opposite side, the whole of the space at the
townward gable, to the width of seventeen feet, was a noble hall about
forty feet long, lofty, and with pilasters in architectural style, and
lighted by two great windows in the gable and the square window on the
stairway.
The stairway itself was a beautiful piece of work and proportion, rising
from the floor in ten railed steps to the landing at the square window,
where a space several feet square commanded both the great front door
and the windows in the gable, and also the yard behind; thence, at right
angles, the flight of steps rose along the back wall to a second landing
over the dumpy back-door, and, by a third leap, returned at right
angles, to the floor above, making what is called the well of the
stairway to be exceedingly spacious, and it opened to the garret floor.
No doubt this cool, great hall was designed to be the centre of a large
mansion, yet it had lost nothing in agreeableness by becoming, instead,
the largest room in the house, receiving abundant daylight, and it was
large enough for either a feast or public worship, and such was its
frequent use.
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